Auckland International Airport, the country's main international gateway, has promoted its general manager retail and commercial Adrian Littlewood as its new boss.
Littlewood will take over as chief executive on November 12, beating out a "significant number of high calibre applicants," the company said in a statement. He joined the airport in 2009, and has grown the company's non-flight annual revenue to some $166 million, or 40 per cent of total sales.
"I'm looking forward to leading the airport team to build on the recent growth delivered by the airport and meet the increased market expectations we face," Littlewood said.
"We will continue to work closely with our partners in the tourism and trade sectors to make the most of the opportunities that exist as we move ahead to finalise our master plan of airfield, terminal and land development to meet New Zealand's needs," he said.
Littlewood succeeds Simon Moutter, who left to take the top job at Telecom, the country's second-biggest listed company. Littlewood previously worked at Telecom, where he was responsible for design, pricing and launch of consumer offers across mobile, broadband and landline portfolios.